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We Can’t Get Enough of Jimmy Olsen in ‘Superman’

“What is going on with Jimmy Olsen?” I recently asked the stars of Superman. “What is it about that guy?” “He’s got rizz,” replied Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Olsen’s fellow reporter Lois Lane. “This is a true fact about Skyler Gisondo,” Clark Kent himself, David Corenswet, added about the Olsen actor. “Which I hope is appropriate to share. Sorry, Skyler… His testosterone is through the roof. Off the charts. True story. So of course, who is surprised that his Jimmy Olsen is pulling the kind of g

60% of managers use AI to make decisions now, including whom to promote and fire - does yours?

Mohamad Faizal Bin Ramli/Getty Images A recent survey from Resume Builder finds that half of managers are using AI to make crucial decisions about their direct reports, including which employees are promoted -- and which are fired. The survey polled 1,342 managers in the US, 60% of whom reported relying on AI to make decisions about their employees: 78% and 77% used the technology to award raises and promotions, respectively, while 66% and 64% used it to determine layoffs and terminations, res

Open-source framework for real-time AI voice

VideoSDK AI Agents Open-source framework for developing real-time multimodal conversational AI agents. Overview The AI Agent SDK is a Python framework built on top of the VideoSDK Python SDK that enables AI-powered agents to join VideoSDK rooms as participants. This SDK serves as a real-time bridge between AI models (like OpenAI and Gemini) and your users, facilitating seamless voice and media interactions. # Feature Description 1 🎤 Real-time Communication (Audio/Video) Agents can listen, sp

MP Materials stock rips 24% higher after $500 million Apple deal for rare earth magnets

People look at iPhones at the Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York City on May 23, 2025. Apple and miner MP Materials announced a $500 million deal Tuesday for rare earth magnets and the development of a recycling facility that will reinforce the iPhone maker's U.S. supply chain. MP Materials stock climbed 24%. Shares of Apple were marginally higher. As part of the agreement, Apple will buy rare earth magnets created at the company's facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Both companies will combine

Research leaders urge tech industry to monitor AI’s ‘thoughts’

AI researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, as well as a broad coalition of companies and nonprofit groups, are calling for deeper investigation into techniques for monitoring the so-called thoughts of AI reasoning models in a position paper published Tuesday. A key feature of AI reasoning models, such as OpenAI’s o3 and DeepSeek’s R1, are their chains-of-thought or CoTs — an externalized process in which AI models work through problems, similar to how humans use a scratch pad to wo

AI coding tools are shifting to a surprising place: the terminal

For years, code-editing tools like Cursor, Windsurf, and GitHub’s Copilot have been the standard for AI-powered software development. But as agentic AI grows more powerful and vibe-coding takes off, a subtle shift has changed how AI systems are interacting with software. Instead of working on code, they’re increasingly interacting directly with the shell of whatever system they’re installed in. It’s a significant change in how AI-powered software development happens – and despite the low profile

The Hidden Costs of AI: How Small Inefficiencies Stack Up

AI is having a major impact on society, from consumer technologies to driving businesses. But among all these large language models and deep neural networks, there are lurking inefficiencies that most people aren’t taking into account. Wasted computational power, hidden costs, the environmental footprint, and more. Whether these inefficiencies are big or small, they all add up. With 58% of companies planning on increasing their investments in AI this year, it’s essential these decision-makers k

Apple commits $500 million over several years to buy US-made rare earth magnets

Apple just announced a commitment of $500 million over several years to buy rare earth magnets from the US-based company MP Materials. These rare earth magnets are used in a number of products, including iPhones, MacBooks and the Apple Pencil stylus. The American-made magnets will be shipped throughout the world, to help "meet increasing global demand for the material." MP Materials is the only fully integrated rare earth producer in the country. The two companies have also pledged to work toge

Mistral releases Voxtral, its first open source AI audio model

As AI systems become more capable, speech is fast becoming the default way we communicate with machines. French AI startup Mistral has jumped into the audio race with its first open model, aiming to challenge the dominance of walled-off corporate systems with open-weight alternatives. On Tuesday, Mistral announced the release of Voxtral, its first family of audio models aimed at businesses. The company is pitching Voxtral as the first open model that’s capable of deploying “truly usable speech

MP Materials stock rips 23% higher after $500 million Apple deal for rare earth magnets

People look at iPhones at the Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York City on May 23, 2025. Apple and miner MP Materials announced a $500 million deal Tuesday for rare earth magnets and the development of a recycling facility that will reinforce the iPhone maker's U.S. supply chain. MP Materials stock climbed 23%. Shares of Apple were marginally higher. As part of the agreement, Apple will buy rare earth magnets created at the company's facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Both companies will combine

Motorola and Swarovski Tease an Aug. 5 Event That May Bring Crystals to a Phone

Motorola may be ready to debut a new phone design that features crystals, as the company is teasing an Aug. 5 event that's set to expand its partnership with Swarovski. Motorola has announced the upcoming event on Tuesday with a teaser video that shows the recently released Moto Buds Loop with Swarovski crystals. Those $300 open-style earbuds are the first product in the partnership, and in a brief statement accompanying the video, Motorola said that the company is "getting ready to bring the s

Apple commits $500M to U.S.-based rare earth recycling firm MP Materials

Apple is investing $500 million in MP Materials, the only fully integrated rare earth mining company currently operating in the United States, as part of a broader effort to strengthen the domestic rare earth supply chain. The tech giant announced on Tuesday that with this deal, it’s committed to buying American-made rare earth magnets developed at MP Materials’ flagship facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The factory will develop a series of neodymium magnet manufacturing lines specifically designe

Apple makes $500 million deal with miner MP Materials for rare earths magnets

People look at iPhones at the Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York City on May 23, 2025. Apple and miner MP Materials announced a $500 million deal Tuesday for rare earths magnets and the development of a recycling facility that will reinforce the iPhone maker's U.S. supply chain. MP Materials stock climbed 10%. Shares of Apple were marginally higher. As part of the agreement, Apple will buy rare earth magnets created at the company's facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Both companies will combine

Apple cuts a deal for recycling rare earth magnets in the US

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Apple has announced a $500 million investment in MP Materials, a rare earth mining company based in the US. With the deal, the two companies will partner on the development of a rare earth magnet recycling line in Mountain Pass, California, allowing Apple to use reprocessed electronics and scrap material to build its products. Apple has worked with

Apple announces $500 million US investment focused on rare earth magnets

Earlier this year, Apple pledged a $500 billion investment in the United States over the next four years. Now, the company is further expanding that pledge with a $500 million plan to “launch an all-new recycling facility for processing recycled rare earth elements.” With this investment, Apple will work with MP Materials and commit to buying American-made rare earth magnets developed in Fort Worth, Texas. The two companies will build out MP Materials’ “state-of-the-art Texas factory” with a “s

Do You Need a Box Spring for Your Modern-Day Mattress? (2025)

You're probably familiar with a box spring, the simple wood frame with springs that acts as a support base under older mattresses. It's not a highly technical piece of equipment like a smart bed (or a trampoline, wouldn't that be fun)—this kind of mattress foundation has persisted through the ages solely due to its simple and durable design. But have you noticed you may not be seeing them as often nowadays? In my opinion as a career mattress tester, contemporary mattresses are on their way to m

Meta built its AI reputation on openness — that may be changing

Top members of Meta’s new Superintelligence Lab discussed pivoting away from the company’s powerful open source AI model, Behemoth, and instead developing a closed model, reports The New York Times. Sources told The Times that Meta had completed training on Behemoth, but delayed its release due to underwhelming internal performance. When the new Superintelligence Lab launched, testing on the model reportedly halted. The discussions are just that — discussions. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg would st

Context Rot: How increasing input tokens impacts LLM performance

Recent developments in LLMs show a trend toward longer context windows, with the input token count of the latest models reaching the millions. Because these models achieve near-perfect scores on widely adopted benchmarks like Needle in a Haystack (NIAH) [1], it’s often assumed that their performance is uniform across long-context tasks. However, NIAH is fundamentally a simple retrieval task, in which a known sentence (the “needle”) is placed in a long document of unrelated text (the “haystack”)

The 30th-anniversary PS5 controller will be available again for a limited time

You have to be a PS Plus subscriber if you want to increase your odds of getting one, though. In a world of flashy limited-edition video game consoles, the 30th anniversary PS5 hardware Sony released in September 2024 came off as remarkably refined, which might have been why it was so hard to actually buy. If you missed that original drop, you'll have another chance to order it, according to a Facebook post on the official PlayStation Facebook page. Sony is doing a limited restock of the 30th A

Study finds AI tools made open source software developers 19 percent slower

When it comes to concrete use cases for large language models, AI companies love to point out the ways coders and software developers can use these models to increase their productivity and overall efficiency in creating computer code. However, a new randomized controlled trial has found that experienced open source coders became less efficient at coding-related tasks when they used current AI tools. For their study, researchers at METR (Model Evaluation and Threat Research) recruited 16 softwa

Cidco MailStation as a Z80 Development Platform (2019)

The Cidco MailStation is a series of dedicated e-mail terminals sold in the 2000s as simple, standalone devices for people to use to send and receive e-mail over dialup modem. While their POP3 e-mail functionality is of little use today, the hardware is a neat Z80 development platform that integrates a 320x128 LCD, full QWERTY keyboard, and an internal modem. After purchasing one (ok, four) on eBay some months ago, I've learned enough about the platform to write my own software that allows it t

This accessory kit was made for tinkerers and has 180 modifications

ZDNET's key takeaways This high-quality screwdriver kit has everything for both the budding enthusiast and professional repairer. This 180-piece kit has 160 quality screwdriver bits and a range of other useful tools, such as plastic prybars, a suction cup, and tweezers. There's no LED light on the front of the screwdriver, so working in dark, cramped spaces can be tricky. $69.99 at Amazon I often get asked about tools, and I genuinely enjoy these conversations because I'm a tool enthusiast. O

AI slows down open source developers. Peter Naur can teach us why

AI slows down open source developers. Peter Naur can teach us why. AI slows down open source developers. Peter Naur can teach us why. Metr recently published a paper about the impact AI tools have on open-source developer productivity1. They show that when open source developers working in codebases that they are deeply familiar with use AI tools to complete a task, then they take longer to complete that task compared to other tasks where they are barred from using AI tools. Interestingly the

xAI starts offering Grok to US government agencies

Just days after apologizing for Grok's recent hard turn toward antisemitism, xAI has announced a suite of AI products for government use. Grok for Government brings together the company's latest commercial products, including Grok 4 and Deep Search, with special considerations given to the needs of federal, state and local agencies. To that end, xAI says it will design custom models for specific national security and research customers. It will also develop specialized AI applications for use i

This accessory kit was made for tinkerers and has180 modifications

ZDNET's key takeaways This high-quality screwdriver kit has everything for both the budding enthusiast and professional repairer. This 180-piece kit has 160 quality screwdriver bits and a range of other useful tools, such as plastic prybars, a suction cup, and tweezers. There's no LED light on the front of the screwdriver, so working in dark, cramped spaces can be tricky. $69.99 at Amazon I often get asked about tools, and I genuinely enjoy these conversations because I'm a tool enthusiast. O

GM’s Final EV Battery Strategy Copies China’s Playbook: Super Cheap Cells

General Motors has just announced its latest and likely final piece in what now appears to be a three-pronged cell-chemistry strategy to power GM’s lineup of a dozen EVs through the end of the decade and beyond. GM has stated today it will build low-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells in Spring Hill, Tennessee, starting in late 2027. Conversion of cell lines to produce that chemistry will begin later this year. The cell plant at the Spring Hill complex is owned and operated by Ultiu

GM to challenge China’s LFP monopoly with upgraded battery factory

GM said Monday it is working with joint venture partner LG Energy Solution to upgrade its Ultium battery factory to make lithium-iron-phosphate cells for the automaker’s low-cost EVs. The factory’s overhaul will give LFP production in the United States a significant boost. Despite being invented and commercialized in the U.S., today the vast majority of LFP cells are currently made in China. The $2.3 billion Spring Hill, Tennessee, battery plant is part of the Ultium Cells LLC joint venture be

I replaced my AirPods with these Nothing earbuds, and it was a sound decision

Nina Raemont/ZDNET The Nothing Ear (a) are $20 off right now, taking the price of my favorite earbuds down to $89, compared to their original price of $109. ZDNET's key takeaways For $89, the new Nothing Ear (a) earbuds Their affordability, comfort, and long battery life make them a great option for budget-conscious shoppers. They're so great that I've taken them practically everywhere: on flights, to work in the office, and to run my first half marathon. Unfortunately, its middling noise-c

You Are in a Box

This post is part 1 of a multi-part series called “the computer of the next 200 years”. You are trapped in a box. You have been for a long time. —D. R. MacIver Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can. —Zawinski's Law of Software Envelopment switching costs and growth most tools simultaneously think too small and too big. “i will let you do anything!”, they promise, “as long as you give up your other tools

Building Modular Rails Applications: A Deep Dive into Rails Engines

I’ve been building Rails applications for the last 10 years on a daily base and almost all of them use active storage now. Users are uploading files and then the questions start rolling in from the team and they are always the same: “How much storage are we actually using?” “Can we see which files aren’t attached to anything anymore?” “What types of files are users uploading the most?” “Is there a way to browse through all our stored files?” I usually open the Rails console, write a few querie